Things you used to think and now can't quite believe you did

Neil Diamond singing Reverend in Blue Jeans sang along for years til my son told me otherwise, Bless.

Neil Diamond singing Reverend in Blue Jeans sang along for years til my son told me otherwise, Bless.

Me too lillamyy with the Arkansas thing, though I did have my doubts.

There's a Kansas in the Wonderful wizard of Oz though isn't there, so it kinda sounded OK

I've only just this moment realised how to pronounce Arkansas, as a result of reading this thread! I thought Arkensaw was a different place! (I've got it right, haven't I??!)

I was well into my teens before I discovered that the Second World War finished in 1945. For some reason I thought it finished in 1953 with the Queens coronation. I'd obviously taken on the two events and then missed the bit in the middle where it ended...

My SIL believed the bit about the rumble strips being for blind drivers to know where the edge of the road is for ages (evil siblings she has)

Oh and I used to think a local anaesthetic meant local to the area, like a traditional indigenous medicine. I somehow imagined doctors performing caesarians using herbs gathered from the local woodland.

I thought Neil Diamond sang Reverend in Blue Jeans

I used to think that when the umpire called out 'deuce' in tennis he was actually saying 'juice' and that's when the players sat down and had their Robinsons.

Tadley has an annual Treacle Fair, named after mining for treacle (local legend also has it that it's because people didn't trust banks so buried their money in treacle tins).

I used to sing "Britain never never never shall be saved" in the National Anthem

Still a bit that a foal is also a baby pony. I also thought ponies grew up to be horses if they grew tall enough. (See I knew something, horses being over 14 Hands tall)

I thought that toy food sets (like Mr Frosty) were just pretend. This could be down to mum telling me that they were poison...

I proudly told my mum that the belly button expanded to let the baby out. And even after reading a very coy girls-growing-up book I wasn't sure if you had to have your clothes off - I thought you could get pregnant sitting on a man's lap.

My mum thought Bombay Sapphire was blue until I corrected her last week - she's nearly 70! Was tempted to buy her some and add a few drops of colouring

I didn't know the phonetic alphabet so wondered which character in Juliet Bravo was Juliet

I was in Crystal Maze so can vouch for the fact that they were allowed out of the room to go and drink coffee until they were back in the game or we finished!

MIL stopped using sugar in her tea when during the seventies she heard about LSD. She was petrified that someone would spike her tea.

DH only recently discovered a laundry basket wasn't called an Ali Baba. When he was a child they had one that was shaped like a Middle Eastern vase and the word stuck in his family.

I was told as a child that men have an Adam's apple and women have an Eve's pear. Never questioned this and made a right fool of myself during sexual education lessons.

Yay, I nominated this for classics because it made me laugh so much, I'm glad it got moved.

I'll have to think of things I can't believe I used to think.

Just looked through the top half of the thread, and came across this:

I thought Arkansas was pronounced Ar-kan-zus. ... How is it pronounced?! I'm an adult, I have no excuse!

As a child, when people said "Eat plenty of food and you'll grow big and strong!", I thought that it was because all of the food that you ate would build up inside your body, starting at your toe and building up to your head, and eventually there would be so much food that it would push against your skull and stretch your body. I was quite old when I realised that the digestive system was an actual thing.

I used to think that they put very tall prisoners in lamp posts to turn the lights on and off ??!

I was perhaps similarly confused by the words "The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want" - that's a bit harsh I thought, not to want him

I used to find the words of "I vow to thee, my country" quite confusing.

I couldn't understand why it was that, in the "other country I've heard of long ago, most dear to them that love her most great to them that know", their pride was suffering so much.

Perhaps they had been a really great country but recently someone had done something awful to make them ashamed and embarrassed?

Oops! And still haven't learned to use a smartphone, obviously!

Sorry about that.

When I was small I thought washing machines were
water powered.
Like the water pressure made the drum spin or something. ..
Just seemed logical at the time. ..

When I was small I thought washing machines were
water powered.
Like the water pressure made the drum spin or something. ..
Just seemed logical at the time. ..

When I was small I thought washing machines were
water powered.
Like the water pressure made the drum spin or something. ..
Just seemed logical at the time. ..

when learning to drive ( young adult) I misheard driving instuctor and thought the car three wheeled not free wheeled when you disengaged clutch. had visions of 3 legged/ 3 wheeling car.

asked dh which wheel didn't work. he fell about

I'm another one who took a very long time to realise you had to move during sex - I blame the "educational" picture books

I thought all modern housing (1960s or later) was council housing - in my defence this was pretty much true in my area

I thought "twat" was a very minor insult, a cross between twit and prat

I used to think that when a man was helping the police with their enquiries, that he was actually helping by knocking on doors and helping the police interview people.

As a child, I genuinely believed that being taken into police custody involved actual CUSTARD